An old adage of Ohio birding says “Bad weather, good birds”. In contrast, the Columbus Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was afflicted with a case of “good weather, meh birds”. A period of mild weather lasted almost right up to count day on Dec 20, resulting in few wintering birds, especially waterfowl. On a cool, clear count day, 60 observers (including two feeder watchers) logged 126 observer hours resulting in 36,856 birds of 79 species spotted. For the exact species totals, please click on the CBC tab on www.columbusaudubon.org. Almost every team saw a burst of bird activity early in the morning, followed by low activity the remainder of the day. Most birds had lower-than-normal totals, and some species were noticeably scarce. Ducks like Scaup and Ruddies were absent, and we almost missed Ring-necked Ducks, as most diving ducks elected to stay in northern Ohio on open water. Starlings may have seemed ubiquitous, but their winter roosts told another story, with numbers down to less than half of last year’s totals. Field birds, like larks and blackbirds, continued to be a hit-or-mostly-miss proposition here as well. Half-hardy insect eaters, like warblers, kinglets, and Swamp Sparrows, were also tough to find. Possibly the long warm spells ‘hatched out’ most of their food bugs, which were later killed by the frosts around count day. Despite the slow birding day, some notable prizes were found, including a Snow Goose found by Charlie Bombaci near Blendon Woods, a rare White-winged Scoter spied by Jeff Pontius and the Scioto team near the sewage treatment plant, a Peregrine that delighted two different teams near downtown, and a very late Wood Thrush lurking in a yard in Upper Arlington (Heather Luedecke, Toni Stahl). The list of count week birds that just missed the official count day was equally unusual, and included a Red-throated Loon seen by many near Griggs Dam, a Ross’s Goose hanging out down near Three-Creeks Park (Mike Horn), a Merlin, and an Eastern Phoebe in Blendon Woods (Bruce Simpson).